IEEE’s BST Hosts 57th Annual Broadcast Symposium

The IEEE’s Broadcast Technology Society kicked off its 57th annual broadcast symposium on Oct. 31, with a full day of presentations on the on the latest developments in the field of mobile TV.

Other topics covered in the three-day symposium included a look at Brazil’s implementation of digital television broadcast services and field test results on two U.S. implementations of distributed transmission systems (multiple DTV transmitters operating on single frequency).

Merrill Weiss from the Merrill Weiss Group LLC was on hand to report on testing of one of these systems implemented in Pennsylvania.

“The transmitters have to be spaced to create multiple echoes, allowing a receiver’s adaptive equalizer to correct the apparent ‘multipath,’” said Weiss. “WPST-DT was the first distributed system in the United States, going on the air in July of 2003.”

Weiss reported that the field testing done supported computer modeling studies of the effectiveness of the technique and that the technology does provide improved DTV service to viewers.

Doug Lung, TV Technology columnist, described similar testing done in the metropolitan New York City involving NBC Telemundo’s DTV station in Linden, N.J. He reported that the system under test in that market worked very well and noted a marked signal improvement in one reception area.

Sessions also dealt with evaluation of magnetic and electric loses in station grounding systems and field testing and analysis of DAB signal coverage.

This year’s symposium attendance numbered 167, with participants coming 14 countries. A total of 32 papers were presented.

Next year’s IEEE BTS Broadcast Symposium is scheduled for Oct. 14–16 and will be held in Alexandria, Va.